Sidney Nolan
(England, Australia 22 Apr 1917–28 Nov 1992)
- Title
- The camp
- Year
- (1946)
- Media
- Painting
- Medium
- Ripolin enamel on hardboard
- Dimensions
- 89.7 x 121.5cm board; 111.6 x 142.2 x 6.5cm frame
- Signature & date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1978
- Accession number
- 207.1978
- Copyright
- © The Trustees of the Sidney Nolan Trust
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
Nolan is one of Australia's most respected and internationally celebrated painters having travelled and exhibited extensively throughout the world during his long career. Largely self-taught by way of repeated visits to the State Library and Gino Nibbi's legendary book store in Melbourne, Nolan discovered the art of Miró, Klee and Picasso and immersed himself in the writings of Blake, Rimbaud, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and DH Lawrence.
Ned Kelly was an Australian folk hero many decades before Nolan took up his cause. Nolan's fascination with Kelly developed from stories told by his grandfather, a trooper who had hunted down the fugitive bushranger in 1880. 'The camp' is one of the original, seminal series of works depicting the life and deeds of this antipodean bandit, which Nolan painted at Sunday and John Reed's house 'Heide', in 1946-47.
'The camp' refers to the moment in the story of Kelly's exploits, just before his gang's ambush at Stringybark Creek in rural Victoria, where three policemen sent to apprehend the outlaws were killed. The bold division of the painting into two halves creates a powerful psychological tension: the calm landscape to the right is juxtaposed against an electric-blue area of paint, from which emerges the square, black, silhouetted figure of Kelly, wearing his beaten-iron armour and helmet.
- Bibliography (11)
-
Great powers and outlaw states: unequal sovereigns in the International Legal Order (2004), Gerry Simpson (Author), Cambridge University Press (England), Cambridge, England.
Australian art: in the Art Gallery of New South Wales (2000), Barry Pearce (Australia) (Author), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Aspects of Australian art (2000), Ursula Prunster (Australia) (Author), Jonathan Cooper (Australia) (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Australian artist (Aug 2000), Editor Unknown (Editor), Elladrent (Australia), Chatswood, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Daily telegraph (22 Jul 2000), Editor Unknown (Editor), News Limited (Australia), Surry Hills, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Look (Oct 2000), Judith White (Australia) (Editor), Fiona Hardie (Australia), South Yarra, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook (1999), Bruce James (Australia) (Author), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Director), Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia), Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
The Ned Kelly Paintings: Nolan at Heide 1946-47 (1997), Andrew Sayers (Australia, b.1957) (Author), Museum of Modern Art at Heide (Australia, estab. 1993, closed 1998), Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Jacaranda Studies of Society and Environment (1996), Jacaranda Wiley Ltd (Author), Jacaranda Wiley Ltd, Queensland, Australia.
Art & the West (1987), Terence Maloon (Australia) (Author), Ursula Prunster (Australia) (Author), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Three years on: a selection of acquisitions 1978-1981 (1981), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874) (Author), Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- Exhibition history (3)
-
Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, (04 Aug 2000–03 Dec 2000), at Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Art Gallery Rd Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2000.
Three years on: Acquisitions 1978-81, (15 Oct 1981–01 Dec 1981), at Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Art Gallery Rd Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2000.
The Ned Kelly Paintings: Nolan at "Heide" 1946-47, (18 Mar 1997–18 May 1997), at Museum of Modern Art at Heide (Australia, estab. 1993, closed 1998), 7 Templestowe Road Bulleen Victoria Australia 3105.